Michigan State coach Tom Izzo watches from the bench at the Breslin Center as his team plays Indiana in East Lansing on Tuesday night, Feb. 19, 2013.J. Scott Park | MLive.com

EAST LANSING -- Michigan State coach Tom Izzo spoke of the opportunity
to knock off No. 1 as if it were a made-for-television steel cage match,
expressing joy that living legend Magic Johnson would call the action and
possibly the greatest crowd in Breslin Center history would watch the Spartans
duke it out with Indiana.

He had hyped the game himself, but after the Spartans lost
72-68 in a top-five battle between Big Ten heavyweights and blew a late lead in the process, Izzo was left coming up with
explanations as to why his players couldn't rise to the grand occasion.

"We had some of our key players that weren't into the game,"
a disappointed Izzo said Tuesday. "We had some distractions, and I think it
affected some guys.

"There were some things that really disappointed me with the
discipline of my team tonight, but it's keeping guys focused, and sometimes
with distractions you start thinking you're better than you are. We didn't play
with the same energy."

Missed free throws might have cost the Spartans in the game's
final minutes and Derrick Nix might have made some regrettable comments last week that upset his coach, but to Izzo, the loss was about a collection of his
players failing to embrace the moment and step forward.

After one half, he was thrilled just to see Michigan State
trailing by six points. That wasn't really a good sign for the Spartans. Keith
Appling had two points and two turnovers. Branden Dawson had four points and
three turnovers. Derrick Nix had two rebounds and an assist.

The Spartans needed more than merely pedestrian performances
to beat the Hoosiers and squandered the golden opportunity to do so.

"Our heads weren't in the game," said Adreian Payne, who
scored 10 of his 17 points in the first half.

The Spartans saw their strong play come in spurts. Payne
scored seven points in a row to give them a 61-60 lead. Nix muscled in a shot
after previously getting blocked to give Michigan State a 64-63 lead and then
scored again after coming up with a steal on the other end. The Spartans led by
four after Gary Harris hit a free throw, and the Hoosiers were a little more
than a minute away from going home in second place.

But Victor Oladipo came through with six points in that
final minute while Appling and Harris struggled to make foul shots. The
Spartans were left crushed by the loss, which snapped a 15-game winning streak
at Breslin.

"I feel like we played one of our worst games of the year,
but at the same time, give them credit," Appling said.

Appling emphasized that Indiana simply out-played Michigan
State, as he couldn't really identify a distraction that had bothered the team.
To the players, Indiana had simply beaten them, and they could have done better.

"We can't have another game like this," Payne said.

Izzo, meanwhile, diagnosed the distractions issue as the team "getting too caught up" with attention. He grumbled that the little things didn't get done. He now
had another chip on his shoulder because Indiana had done what Michigan State could
not -- play championship-caliber basketball when it counted.

"For Indiana to come in on this night with the crowd as good
as it was and the national audience, I think that speaks volumes of them," he
said.

And it said Michigan State in contrast still had some growing up left to do.